D-Day prayer

ByNancy RobisonJune 4, 2010

June 6, 1944, has become known as D-Day, when the massive invasion of Europe began during World War II.

As a little girl I thought the war would never end, and I spent many days and nights in prayers with my family, as did a lot of other people. Pulling together was a natural way of life. My mother went to work in a defense plant, my brother joined the Air Force, and we collected rags, scrap metal, and soap for recycling. Food and gas were rationed, and we did all we could to help the war effort.

But praying was the most vital and important part of the day. Each morning my mother set aside time for earnest prayer for world peace. And this regimen of daily prayer for the world has continued throughout my own life. The study of Christian Science has brought comfort and inner peace when the world situation has looked gloomy.

Mary Baker Eddy, who founded Christian Science, wrote that each day she prayed for “the pacification of all national difficulties, for the brotherhood of man, for the end of idolatry and infidelity....” She continued, “I also have faith that my prayer availeth, and that He who is overturning will overturn until He whose right it is shall reign. Each day I pray: ‘God bless my enemies; make them Thy friends; give them to know the joy and the peace of love’ ” (“The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 220).

We can join in this prayer, which is an effective way to improve our lives and to respond to local and world conditions. Every good and perfect thought contributes to the reversal of any wickedness that screams for attention. With bad news or unrest and contention available continually through the media, it’s sometimes difficult to believe there is any good left in the world. But of course there is, because God is good and the only power. Evil has no power. Christ Jesus proved this when he stilled a storm at sea, healed a leper, cured the insane, raised the dead.

Our prayers are far-reaching, whether we ever hear the results or not. It is the same God’s outstretched arms that surround each of us, wherever we are. Mary Baker Eddy wrote, “As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 361).

Reaching out and embracing our neighbors near and far with love and understanding, and knowing that their every need is always supplied by the ever-present, omnipotent God, we are certainly filling the air with prayer that penetrates what seem to be closed doors.